Ratting + Pics (Rubbish Pics)

[RemyBolt 420]

FINALLY!!! This was going to be done a while back, but I could not find my cable to upload the photos to the computer!!! No point having a write up without back-up.

 

I was out the other weekend with gun and camera...Oh my goodness it's hard to get good photos in the dark down small tunnels and the alike! All photos were taken at the end of the shooting when I was showing the farmer the rats I had taken out. I've added coloured arrows here and there to point out the things I'm talking about.

 

Well, before the pics come out, I'll do my lovely write-up. Might well intersperce photos into the long winded blurb that I will be spouting.

 

When I got on site, the farmer (who likes to show me around and point out the 'problem areas', then leaves me to it) was not around, so I text him that I was going to be in "House 6" popping rats in the bottom far corner where I got so many kills last week (amazingly one of the rats I got was still at the bottom end of the house, but I'd not reached there yet). I like to walk around the place with my lights off. My theory is that it'll enhance my night vision. As I got to the open section of House 6, I heard a scurry sound. Light on, I saw a rat out in the open. It froze for a second in the light. Pop. First rat on the night. Not massive, but a good size.

 

I've taken another picture of Rat #1 next to my size 11 boots.

 

I walked down along the egg belt that I spoke about in the previous write-up, where there was the smallest (2-3cm) gap to pop rats.

This time around, only one kill. It was bare, apart from this one rat. Light on, it scurried and burried it's head behind am inch thick pole. Thankfully the rest of the rat was sticking out....pop. Rat number 2, nice heart and lung shot. But it fell through the opening and onto the belt. That'll be found later on by the next person to be picking eggs. A lovely decayed rat.

 

When I got to the bottom of the house, I was met with one of my favourite rat popping corners and 2 new friends...or targets, as I like to call them. This area is the seperation of the upper floor and the ground/foundations. The gap is the size of a 2x4 piece of wood. Imagine a pallet lay flat on the floor, then shooting through the gap between the lower sections and upper sections of a pallet. That's the gap I get to play with. It's around 9-12cm I'd guess. To do this properly I had to position myself about 8 meters back, so that the pellets would not be too high or low above the natural zero that I had my gun at. Two quick shots with the night vision, and another 2 down. By now I had managed a total of 4 rats, 2 in this bottom corner, one on the belt, and one at the entrance to the 'house'. Just in time the farmer turned up at the opening of the house, pleased with the evidence of Rat #1 at the door.

 

I point out the other rats that I had shot, the one on the belt fell through so was out of view, the others were below the collection area, which I had no intention of crawling through! Especially to get a photo for you guys, no offence. Thank goodness for the "No Pick Up" health and safety rules!!!

 

When I got back to the front doors a small rat bolted into a gap at the front of the house, between the corrugated outer-wall and the inner structure (where I tend to lose a lot of rat bodies). It's the gap where a shot rat falls between the outer and inner wall. I have lost sooooo many rats down that area in all different "Houses".

So I lay down and pop on my light! Jack-Pot...Rat nest! On with my homemade night vision and time to start popping numbers. First few were easy to kill...except for getting into position! The ground was sloping, hard, and I had to back up again because the zero would be off if I tried to shoot from closer up. Then it was a bit of a waiting game. I say waiting, it was at most a minute between shots. Totalled 8 kills of which 3 were 90's (Where you're 90% certain it was a kill but cannot either retrieve a body or see it, like when they fall between the inner and outer wall cavity). It was hard to get the camera down there and zoom to get a good picture, so I've done my best and added some lines to highlight the rats taken out. To give you an idea of how awkward it is to get my camera down the rat hole:

The nobble at the middle of the picture actually had a dead rat at each end of it as in the next picture.

 

This picture has much better views of the rats behind the "dead knobble rats". Thankfully the rats at the back were taken out first. If I had hit the two at the front, it would have been near impossible to see behind the front Dead-Knobble-Rats. They were the last 2 to be taken out IN the nest.

 

As the farmer went up and down the belt, where we were getting a lot of kills the week before, checking for rats, while he was moving towards me, he noticed a rat try to escape out the back of the wall; trying to get away from the nest massacre. Farmer's eagle eyes coupled with me and my little Rat Catcher (I really love this gun, even though it's rubbish, I love it) cleaned out another rat with a tidy head shot. I was on form!

 

 

We then went on to another 'house' to work. This one saw my first 2 shots miss. Totally my own fault. I knocked my scope and with Rat Catchers they easily un-zero if the barrel twists a little. Rezeroed (twisted the barrel back 3degrees) and back on zero. Went up to the egg belt, got a quick easy kill up top, about half way down (was not able to get a picture as it was too far down) and then saw myself lay on the ground again taking out more rats. No joke, I was lay on the floor for at least 40% of my shots that evening. Bagged a few rats on the bottom belt, only 3 with another 2 90's, but when I came back to get photos, had 2 problems. 1. The rats were too far down the belt for my flash to get good pictures (next time I'm taking a torch to shine down there. Hopefully that'll work better) and the second problem when I went to get some photos was that I didn't have my gun!!! Would have bagged me a 4th rat on the belt, check this cheeky bugger out:

 

Well, as you can see, it was a pretty strange night out, lay back shooting lots, and not being very good with the camera. Hopefully today will be a better session. Yes, you heard that right, I'm back out tonight, as long as my right knee doesn't screw up. Picked up a load of Accu-Pell .22 domes, so I'm ready to get to wiping out some more rats.

 

Hope you've enjoyed the write up and pictures. I promise I'll try and get better photos this time around.

 

 

[villaman 9,983]

Nice read mate ,photos are ok

[RemyBolt 420]

Nice read mate ,photos are ok

The photos suck! Got a couple of other rats that I've shot, but they are from the week before. Some have been chewed by rats, others just looked raggedy and crap. Not sure they'd be good to upload.

[sprockerjay 74]

brill write up pictures are cool love to see dead rats atb aidy

[The one 8,479]

Nice read and pics mate

[random 659]

good read,those are the sort of sessions you remember for a long time ...

[Coypu Hunter 486]

Nice write-up as usual, and nice shooting. Don't worry too much about the quality of the pics -- I've seen much worse, and we get the idea!

[Darkie69 76]

Really enjoyed the read and the photos were fine, at least i could see the Ratmageddon fest near the hump. A dead rat is always good in my books, well done

[John Stott 202]

Thats a good read thanks!